Priest Abuse Report Issued

Archdiocese Of Hartford Releases Its Numbers

February 24, 2004|By FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR; Courant Staff Writer

Since 1950, 24 priests in the Hartford archdiocese have had ``substantial'' sexual abuse allegations against them, involving 79 victims, according to figures released Monday. The Roman Catholic archdiocese also said it had paid $2.05 million to compensate victims and settle claims.

The archdiocese collected the statistics for a national study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York that was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The survey of 195 Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States is being conducted in an effort to determine the scope and cost of the priest sexual abuse crisis.

The survey asked the bishops to report known cases that occurred or were reported between 1950 and 2002. The Hartford archdiocese said Monday that 20 priests have had ``substantial allegations of the sexual abuse of children.'' Since January 2003, the archdiocese received 23 additional accusations -- 19 against priests involved in earlier cases, and four against priests who had not been accused before. A total of 1,413 priests have served the archdiocese since 1953.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a website that tracks and compiles priest sexual abuse cases from court documents and published reports, said the public should be critical of the numbers released Monday and in the final report.

``All this is bishop self-reporting,'' she said. ``There was no independent effort to determine true numbers; the public should not deduce that this [commissioned John Jay survey] is an independent survey.''

Of the $2,045,115 the Hartford archdiocese paid in compensation, $1,418,705 was paid by insurance and $626,410 was paid through a self-funded insurance reserve.

``While the actual statistics over the period covered by the survey are relatively minimal in scope, even one perpetrator, one victim, is one too many,'' Archbishop Henry J. Mansell said in a statement Monday. ``Clearly, history cannot be changed. However, we can make sure that history is not repeated.''

The complete John Jay tally is expected to be released Friday, but a number of dioceses, including Bridgeport, Norwich and now Hartford, have released their own results from the survey.

In January, the Norwich diocese reported sexual abuse allegations against 19 priests since 1953, with compensation payments from its general fund and from insurers totaling $568,000.

The Bridgeport diocese reported earlier this month that there had been allegations against 32 of its priests, involving 107 victims and $37.7 million in settlements.

The Associated Press has been tracking figures from the 112 dioceses that have released their findings. As of last Friday it reported 2,243 accusations against clergy, and 4,757 abuse claims filed. Some of the archdioceses with large numbers of cases, such as Boston and Louisville, have not yet released their findings.

The Rev. John P. Gatzak, a spokesman for the Hartford archdiocese, said 12 of the 24 accused priests are dead, including the four who are the subject of the most recent allegations. The others are no longer in active ministry.

Gatzak said most of the incidents date to the 1960s and 1970s, including those involved in the allegations made in 2003.

``We can assure the entire community that these men are no longer in positions where they can minister or affect young people,'' Gatzak said.

Doyle disagreed that such men were no longer a threat. Though not in active ministry, such priests can settle into unsuspecting communities, Doyle said, noting a recent report in the Boston Globe, which found a defrocked priest later was employed as a greeter at Disney World.

``Don't the people of Hartford want to know where these men are?'' Doyle said. ``Many of them are likely still alive. The archdiocese is a keeper of an unofficial sex offender registry.''

A discussion of this story with Courant Staff Writer Frances Grandy Taylor is scheduled to be shown on New England Cable News each half-hour today between 9 a.m. and noon.